Lean six sigma customer service

Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd – www.carpedia.co.za – Lean Six Sigma Customer Service

Customer Retention

A Top Priority in a Down

Economy

A Lean-Six Sigma Approach to

Customer Service Excellence

Werner Hess

Your company

has a large

investment in the

existing customer

base. In fact it is

your company’s

biggest asset.

How well are you

doing in terms of

serving existing

customers as

means of

protecting this

asset ?


Introduction Newcomers to the sales environment may perceive the sales

It’s a well known fact: More companies focus on customer service effectiveness during a

downturn than when sales are buoyant and the economy is on the boil. The approach is

right. Customer retention becomes a key focus area during a downturn, as it is 10 times

more expensive to create a totally new customer than selling some more of your existing

product portfolio to existing customers. Most companies lose some 20-25% of their

customer base annually for a variety of reasons. An effective retention strategy will in fact

be able to squeeze growth out of arresting attrition! Many companies will also take the

approach that the existing customer base is an asset worth protecting and what better way

to keep customers than by providing exceptional customer service!

Lean-Six Sigma may conjure up visions of a complex production / logistics based initiatives

designed to improve industrial processes and drive costs out. Little is in fact known about

lean-Six Sigma applied to the customer service environment. In this paper we will explore

some approaches and find some pretty good arguments why lean-six sigma based programs

are particularly effective in the customer service environment.


Key-Concepts

The customer service environment is perhaps one of the most challenging to get to grips

with in the organisation. The challenge is of course linked to the fact that one tries to

manage processes that are largely not directly under the company’s control. The further

challenge is that costs will always an issue, while customer service effectiveness will need to

reach internal and external service level agreements. It is all about

managing the paradox. Costs DOWN & service and customer

experience UP. It is a perpetual struggle to get the balance right.

Delivering continuously improving customer experiences at an ever

reducing cost per unit of customer service delivered.

What does Lean and Six Sigma have to do with effective customer

service?

Lets firstly examine the concepts;

Lean is a systematic approach of eliminating process waste so that

every step adds value to the customer.

Six sigma is a process improvement methodology that strives to

achieve levels of process accuracy and consistency in order to reduce

errors to a level of only 3 errors per million opportunities!

Together, the concepts of Lean and Six Sigma can go a long way in

terms of clarifying what needs to done in the customer service

environment, to what standards and how to deliver exactly to customer

expectations.

CTQ or CCTQ are two concepts that clarify what it is that the customer wants. C=critical T=to

and Q= quality. CCTQ = Critical to customer quality. These definitions, when effectively

applied, create the opportunity for the service centre to deliver to known customer

expectations.

FCR refers to first call resolution in the case of contact centre operations and ties in very

closely with the objectives of lean, “Right First Time”. The implication here is that customer

service should be able to resolve all customer issues the first time they are encountered.

Managing the

paradox:

Service UP

Costs DOWN

Employee

Satisfaction

UP

Churn DOWN


Merging Right Brain customer centricity with Left Brain Process

compliance

One concept that adds to the paradoxical nature of effective customer service delivery is the

balance that needs to be there between a process centred approach to delivering the right

quality of customer service and the “people” element. After all; this about people dealing

with people. You want to be able to take control of the customers issues and resolve them

immediately, while not losing the essential human touch, or what is referred to as the

“relationship” in customer relationship management. Seems quite a challenge; Balancing

hard process focused, doing it right first time actions, with the necessary addition of human

empathy and understanding in order to create the right level of positive customer

experience.


The 4 components of great customer service

While customer service delivery can be regarded as a process (which it is), it is just as

important to inject the right balance of empathy and compliance into the mix. The actual

service delivery doesn’t just happen by itself. It needs to be designed.

Providing a framework for customer service agents is an essential to do for most companies,

so that the assurance is there, that every customer interaction is

optimised from a business process delivery and customer experience

point of view. The “4 Components” framework goes a long way to

create customer friendly and highly efficient customer service

processes.

Task

Task very simply refers to the process side of customer service

delivery. The concept of process efficiency and doing it right first time

creates process and task readiness, so that the customer requirement

can be dealt with effectively and efficiently.

Treatment

Imagine an environment where customer treatment is pre-defined.

The instance where the customer deals with the organisation is

defined, so that every one of your customer interactions is executed

at the same level of rigour throughout all of your customer touch

points and interactions. Treatment can be defined along the lines of response and

responsiveness, ownership and accountability, and achieves goals for both the customer

and the company.

Tangibles

Tangibles can also be referred to as “measurables.” In other words it refers to how

accurately we deliver the customer service from the customer, as well as the company’s

Design the

right delivery

platform based

on:

• Task

• Treatment

• Tangibles

• Education


point of view. Accuracy translates to “first call resolution” and a high level of customer

satisfaction.

Education Education enables the customer service agent to own the customer experience by

continuously educating the customer in terms of process steps that the customer should

follow, to make the experience a pleasant one.

How can a Lean – Six Sigma customer service effectiveness program

improve your customer service delivery?

• Lean process definition creates an opportunity for you to not only understand the

key customer delivery processes, it also drives waste from your process. It is

inevitable for waste and duplication to have infiltrated your process environment

over time, impacting process effectiveness negatively.


• Six Sigma process optimisation ensures that your processes are laid out to align

with the VOC, (voice of the customer) achieving a level of customer centricity at

the outset. Customer calls become predictable and enables your customer service

agents to respond to customer requests effectively.

• Lean skills provide frame works for customer service delivery and implements a

“right brain – left brain” culture in your customer service agents. This level of

mental dexterity enables you to deliver so called “delightful customer experience”

alongside effective delivery.

Carpedia use six sigma strength, assessment tools to analyse opportunities for process,

service level and customer experience improvement. Our analysts normally spend a week

in your customer service environment and can provide you with very accurate

assessments of how you will be able to drive up the effectiveness of your customer service

environment. Should opportunities for improvement be present, Carpedia can help you

design and deliver a lean-six sigma program that will improve effectiveness by 20-35% ,

sustainably!


About Carpedia Consulting…

Carpedia Consulting is an internationally relevant management consultancy firm, dedicated

to assisting clients to improve sales and profits through the implementation of improvement

programs. Our approach is what makes us unique. The way we design, develop and execute

our programs is hands-on, solutions-based and excellence driven.

Our programs are customized to the needs of your organisation and are designed to ensure

significant and sustainable improvements are made both internally and externally – by the

sales team, for the customer.

www.carpedia.co.za

About Werner Hess…

Werner Hess has spent 20 years of his career in various sales, marketing and leadership positions

with Bayer, Triad Electronics, GE and GE Plastics before serving as managing director of GE Plastics

and Polymerland. Werner’s first experience in the world of consulting came about when he joined

Proudfoot Consulting as Director of Business Development, which included several international

assignments in Europe and the USA, leading sales effectiveness projects for global clients. Werner’s

current company, Carpedia Consulting is a specialist niche consultancy focused on sales and profit

improvement.

Werner’s latest book, The Science of Selling has just been published and reveals approaches,

systems and processes that can be implemented to create a successful sales platform.

Werner can be reached on: [email protected]


Carpedia Consulting (Pty) Ltd PO Box 1701 GALLO Manor 2052 Building 2 Country Club Estates Woodlands Drive Woodmead Sandton South Africa Tel: 27-11 – 258-8813 Fax: 27-11- 258-8511 Mob: 27-82-888-0228

Email: [email protected]

www.carpedia.co.za